A few examples, taken from press reports over recent weeks: Coroner Tim Scott said after an inquest into the deaths of two young men, who died soon after taking synthetic drugs, that legal highs must be banned sooner rather than later. Such deaths were cropping up in more and more inquests.
A senior Waikato Hospital doctor said that synthetic drug users were holding up worthy emergency cases in hospital emergency departments across the country. Medical staff reported users suffering seizures; others were highly agitated and sometimes violent. Persistent vomiting, visual and auditory hallucinations and severe paranoia were common among those turning up to emergency departments.
Police Deputy Commissioner Mike Bush said police were finding that synthetic drugs were becoming an increasingly concerning factor in a number of crimes, including violent offending. "This is being driven by people either committing crime to get their hands on these drugs, or committing crimes while on them," he said.
And in the Bay of Plenty, drug use is reported to be reaching "pandemic" levels with some employers unable to fill their job vacancies because they can't find workers who can pass a drug test.
Yet Parliament, which has a sacred duty to protect the people from themselves and others, can't even make up its mind to ban animal testing altogether and leaves a loophole that any lawyer will be able to drive a bulldozer through.
About the only thing that makes any sense in the whole affair is the impassioned pleading of Act leader John Banks, on behalf of animals used in testing these dreadful drugs before they go on sale.
His address, which ran to some 1200 words, was dismissed by reporters in a couple of sentences. Here are some excerpts: "I do not think there is anyone in this Parliament who really believes in torturing animals. I do not think there is anyone in this Parliament who really wants to put any animal, whether it is a mouse, a rabbit, or a beagle puppy, to any pain or suffering.
"I say to the drug dealers and manufacturers that if you want or need to test these drugs on animals, we say 'do not bother' ... if you cannot prove your fun drug of choice is safe without putting animals into abject misery, then you cannot sell your drug.
"It is important that we in this Parliament clearly understand that we have a responsibility to protect animals at every turn, at every corner, on every day. We are sacrificing animals at the altar of recreational drug-use ...
"I care about young people ... we should not have young people taking these substances. But I care about animals, their welfare and their rights just as much.
"I want to put on record today that I like animals quite a lot better than I like a lot of people."
Me, too, Mr Banks.
garth.george@hotmail.com
